Not Applicable.
The invention relates to a suture buttress, and more particularly to a suture buttress having a securing element which retains the suture buttress within a bone tunnel.
Open repair of the rotator cuff tendon is the most common open surgical procedure performed on the shoulder. It has been estimated that the incidence of rotator cuff tearing in the population at large runs between 15 and 25%, with approximately half of these being full thickness tears of the tendon. A smaller percentage of these become sufficiently symptomatic to warrant surgical repair.
Generally, techniques for repairing rotator cuff tears involve reattaching the torn tendon back to the bone from which it is avulsed. Typically, suture material is used to tie the tendon directly back to bone to facilitate healing of the tendon. Common technical problems with this repair often result from the fact that rotator cuff tears frequently occur in patients who are in an older age group. These patients often have poor quality bone, osteopenic bone, or bone that has been weakened by disuse due to pain. When the tendon is brought back to the bone, attempts to hold the tendon securely to the bone can be frustrated by the poor quality bone.
One method for reattaching the rotator cuff tendon to bone is to make a hole or tunnel in the bone of the greater tuberosity, to pass suture thread that has been secured to the tendon through these bone tunnels, and to reattach the rotator cuff tendon directly to the bone by tying these sutures. Using this method, the suture material can be frayed and weakened, or possibly severed, by contact with sharp edges of subcortical bone inside the bone tunnel or at the openings of the bone tunnel.
Poor bone quality also affects this method of repair adversely as the suture material may cut directly through the bone, frustrating the attempts at secure repair. Even where the suture does not cut completely through the bone, any amount of carving into bone by the suture material may result in a loosening of the suture and a corresponding loosening of the attachment of the rotator cuff tendon to bone.
The present invention provides a suture buttress having a hollow tube including an external securing element made up of at least one tab disposed on an outer surface of the suture buttress. The tabs are formed at an angle to a longitudinal axis of the suture buttress so that the tabs extend outward from the outer surface of the suture buttress. The tabs are resiliently deformable and may be recessable within cut-outs formed in the outer surface of the suture buttress, allowing the tabs to deform as the suture buttress slides into a bone tunnel in a first direction when inserted into a bone tunnel. After insertion of the suture buttress in the bone tunnel, the tabs engage the tunnel to prevent the suture buttress from sliding out of the tunnel. In one embodiment, a resilient flange is also disposed on the outer surface of the buttress. The resilient tube may also be constructed of a porous material or have pores formed thereon to promote bone ingrowth in a bone tunnel.